Core subjects in accounting academic programmes: Development of pervasive skills

Abstract

Accounting education has in recent years increasingly emphasised the need for developing pervasive skills. This paper reports on a South African study of the perceptions of aspirant chartered accountants (CAs) on the importance of the core subjects during the academic programme, in developing pervasive skills, in the categories of ethical behaviour and professionalism, personal attributes, and professional skills. A questionnaire with open- and closed-ended questions was administered to aspirant CAs who had completed their academic programme, and were in the process of completing their training programme. Aspirant CAs reported that overall pervasive skills were most prevalent in the subject of Strategy. Ethical behaviour and professionalism skills were most prevalent in the subject of Audit, personal attribute skills were most prevalent in the subject of Strategy while professional skills were most prevalent in the subject of Accounting. Taxation received the lowest ranking overall for pervasive skills as well as for the different categories of skills. Educators need to make greater efforts to inculcate pervasive skills by using real-life, practical examples in their core subjects. Furthermore, pervasive skills should be integrated into core subjects, as these are complementary in nature. Furthermore, integrating core subjects can enhance the acquisition of pervasive skills.

Keywords:

• academic programme
• accountants
• core subjects
• higher education
• pervasive skills
• soft skills
• teaching methods

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. Many thanks also go to SAICA for supporting this research and assisting in distributing the questionnaire to aspirant CAs.

Disclosure statement

The author is an academic at the University of Johannesburg. She lectures Management Accounting and Strategy to second and third year students on the Bachelor of Accounting degree, which is accredited by SAICA.

ORCID

Monique Keevy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2580-7367

Notes

1 The term ‘aspirant CA’ used in this study, refers to an individual/accounting trainee that has already completed the academic programme and two years of the required three-year training programme.

2 SAICA is undertaking a project (CA2025) to revise the most recent version (2017) of the Competency Framework. The proposed Competency Framework will no longer have the three categories of pervasive skills as set out above, as well as the six core subjects (technical skills). However pervasive and technical skills will still be evident in the proposed CA2025 Competency Framework (SAICA, 2019). This paper, however, reports on the pervasive skills and core subjects as expressed in SAICA’s 2017 Competency Framework (SAICA, 2017).

3 In South Africa, the core subject of Strategy, Risk Management and Governance was only introduced into SAICA’s curriculum in 2009, with the development of the Competency Framework (SAICA, 2009). This subject is embedded within other core subjects such as Auditing (governance portion) and Financial Management and/or Management Accounting (strategy and risk management portion).